The present invention relates to athletic shoes, and particularly to outsoles for bowling shoes.
In many sports or athletic games, the player wears specialized shoes having a construction, especially an outsole, which is adapted to support the player in the particular movement characteristic of that sport or game. For bowling, the slide and braking characteristics of the shoe are important, especially for professionals and serious amateurs. Various techniques and outsole configurations have been proposed for enabling the bowler to personalize these characteristics.
Some of these techniques involve interchangeable slide pads on the foresole, with or without interchangeable heel pads. Each pad has a different surface characteristic, whereby the frictional interaction between shoe and lane can be altered to suit the individual bowler's style and idiosyncrasies. Most of these techniques rely on a hook and loop engagement between the pads and the tread.
One problem presented by interchangeable slide pads connected to the foresole tread by hook and loop fabric, has been the tendency of the front edge of the slide pad to begin peeling away, especially for bowlers who exhibit a relatively steep toe angle of attack on the lane. Another has been optimizing the tradeoff between providing sufficient total contact area between the pad and the lane, which some believe requires complete coverage of the pad over the foresole tread, while permitting different coefficients of friction under different regions of the tread.